Pet Health Company Better Choice Promotes Sauermann, Young

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Press release: Better Choice

Better Choice Company Inc., a pet health and wellness company, recently announced the promotion of Robert Sauermann to chief operating officer and Donald Young to chief sales officer.

Sauermann joined Better Choice Company in December 2019, concurrent with the acquisition of Halo, and currently serves as the executive vice president of strategy and finance for Better Choice. Prior to joining the Halo team full-time in October 2019 as its chief strategy officer, Sauermann served as an investment professional at Pegasus Capital Advisors. In that role, he also served on the board of Halo from 2017 through 2019 and led the successful restructuring and sale of the company to Better Choice. While at Pegasus, he deployed approximately $100 million of growth equity capital across various sectors, with a particular focus on animal health and wellness focused investments.

Sauermann previously served on the boards of Organix Recycling, National Strategies and currently serves on the board of SGV International. Sauermann began his career at Credit Suisse in New York. Sauermann is a graduate of Harvard College and holds a degree in economics and earth and planetary science.

Young joined Better Choice Company with more than 30 years of experience leading the sales organizations of several prominent pet specialty pet food brands including The Nutro Company (Natural Choice, MAX, and Greenies Brands) and Merrick Pet Care, Inc. (Merrick, Backcountry, Purrfect Bistro and Fresh Kisses Brands). Following his success at The Nutro Company, Young led the turnaround and expansion of Merrick Pet Care’s Pet Specialty business from 2010 – 2020, where he was directly responsible for growing the company from a niche brand to the No. 3 natural player in the pet specialty retail channel. Merrick Pet Care more than quadrupled its sales during this period, surpassing $500 million in the process and ultimately leading to the sale of Merrick

Pet Care to the Nestle Purina Company. Young has also been recognized by his peers in the Pet Industry for his track record of success, winning numerous sales awards throughout his career including recognition as one of Pet Age Magazine’s 2019 ICON Winners.

“On behalf of the entire Board we are proud to announce the well-deserved promotions of Rob and Donald to chief operating officer and chief sales officer respectively,” commented Michael Young, chairman of the board. “Both have shown a true passion for the business and

 exceptional leadership since the first day they joined Better Choice. Both of their contributions have been invaluable to not only driving the growth of the business, but also creating a great company culture for our employees.”